Lost in Criterion

One of the last Hollywood films before the Hays Code went into effect, Josef von Sternberg's The Scarlet Empress seems to see the coming crackdown and gave it the double deuce. The story of how Catherine the Great ended up as Empress of Russia - one of apparently two films on the subject to come out in 1934 for some reason - The Scarlet Empress claims historical accuracy by being based on Catherine's own journals. This is a...tenuous claim.

Every year we take a break from the hustle and bustle of getting Lost in Criterion and settle in by the fire for a non-Criterion Christmas classic. This year it's Lethal Weapon and our dear friend Sam Martin of the band 99 Spitits.

The film that made it into the Criterion Collection because Armageddon is already in there so why not? Donovan Hill joins us to talk about Michael Bay's debut directorial, a movie that may actually be a video game?

This week Pat and I spend five minutes joking about Sting stemming from our mistaken belief that he was in Genesis. Sorry, Phil Collins, but all bald British musicians are the same. Genesis only comes up because they have a prominent opening credit listing in this week's movie Neil Jordan's great neo-noir Mona Lisa from 1986. This is Bob Hoskins's third outing in the Criterion Collection so far, and boy is it always fun to see him. Can't wait for Super Mario Bros!

Bertrand Tavernier's noirish Coup de Torchon transports Jim Thompson's 1964 novel Pop. 1280 from racist rural Texas to racist French West Africa. It works out. The story of an ineffectual local sheriff who decides to use his public image for private evil, Coup de Torchon is probably the jauntiest, brightest, jazziest nihilism we've ever experienced here at Lost in Criterion.

There's a lot to be said about Spartacus. It's famously one of the only films Stanley Kubrick directed in which he didn't have complete creative control. It's one of the biggest contributing factors to the end of blacklisting in Hollywood. It's possibly the greatest movie ever made out of pure spite.